BEVERAGES: Down to the Last Drops

For 50 years Hoboken, N.J., has awakened to the rich smell of coffee roasting at the Maxwell House factory on the town’s famous waterfront. But last week the Philip Morris subsidiary announced that the factory, which has 600 employees and ranks as the city’s largest industrial employer, will close in 1992. Like other brands, Maxwell House has suffered from the decline in U.S. coffee consumption. On average, Americans now drink 1.75 cups a day, roughly half their intake in 1962. Younger consumers favor soft drinks.

The company will replace the Hoboken output by boosting production at its factory in Jacksonville. But residents of Manhattan at night, across the Hudson River, will miss the venerable red-and-white neon sign of Maxwell House, its trademark coffee cup spilling out the last drops.